Leaders of three opposition factions in Ukraine's parliament, Arseniy Yatseniuk of Batkivschyna, Oleh Tiahnybok of Svoboda, and Vitali Klitschko of UDAR, have filed lawsuits regarding unlawful voting on legislative bills in parliament on January 16, Batkivschyna faction MP Pavlo Petrenko said.

"Ten claims were lodged with the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine with demands to cancel the results of the voting and bar the Holos Ukrainy and Uriadovy Kurier official newspapers from publishing these 'defective' acts by the Verkhovna Rada [needed for the laws to become effective] until the lawsuits have been considered," he said at a briefing at the press center of the national resistance headquarters, according to a posting on the Batkivschyna party's Web site.

The claims are based on clear evidence that some lawmakers, including Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Rybak, First Vice Speaker Ihor Kaletnyk and MP Volodymyr Oliynyk (the Regions Party faction) had been acting unlawfully, Petrenko said.

Petrenko also claims that some representatives of the Regions Party and the Communist Party are now trying to retroactively forge documents and conclusions by relevant parliamentary committees about the alleged pre-voting consideration of the said bills.

"We officially announce that there is neither legal decision by committees, nor legal protocol on the pre-voting consideration of the bills. Any provocation by representatives of the [parliamentary] majority with respect to the alleged participation of the opposition in the committees' meetings is nothing but falsification," Petrenko said.

He also added that the opposition was going to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. "We have a clear legal basis to prove in the European Court that these pseudo-laws limit citizens' rights foreseen by the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights [and Fundamental Freedoms] and were passed with flaws and cannot be applicable on the territory of Ukraine."